NBA Rundown – March 28th, 2013

Royalty: DeMarcus Cousins went full on Beast mode last night, feasting on the weak souls of the Phoenix Suns, with 34 points (12 of 16), and a helping of 14 rebounds in 30 minutes of play. His tiny teammate, Isiah Thomas cleaned up the leftovers with 23 points on 6 of 10 shooting and 8 assists. There really weren’t anything the Suns could have done in this game to slow the Kings down. I mean what you can you do when a team scores 62 points in your paint, compared to the 42 you had in theirs? Defense, anyone? There was a lone bright light for the Suns, Luis Scola did score 25 points (10 of 13) and grabbed 7 rebounds in the losing effort.

Empty Lake: With a chance to pass Wilt Chamberlain for 4th most points in NBA history, Kobe Bryant came up 5 points short, finishing with a game-high 30 points on 6 of 17 shooting in the loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. Dwight Howard added 15 points (6 of 8) and 15 boards. The Bucks starting line up completely outmatched the opposition, combining for 95 of the teams’ total 113. LARRY SANDER! led the way with 21 points (8 of 11) and 13 rebounds. While Brandon Jennings chipped in for 20 points (7 of 14) and 7 dimes against his hometown team. This Lakers loss is huge and could potentially comeback to haunt them, as it gives the Utah Jazz a shot to reclaim their 8th spot in the West with a win over the Portland Trail Blazers today.

Update – More bad news for the Lakers, Kobe Bryant has a bone spur in his left foot and is out indefinitely.

More Beards: The beards won’t be coming off for another two games, everyone. In the much anticipated .500 beard game, where several members of the Dallas Mavericks were prepared to rid themselves of the facial hair they have grown in their winning drought, the results were negative, with the Mavs falling to two games behind .500 after this 25 point loss to the Indiana Pacers. Dirk Nowitzki did all he could, going off for a team-high 21 points on 10 of 20 shooting and 7 rebounds. With the exception of Vince Carter, who came off the bench for 14 points on 13 shots, no one scored more than 10 points. And to top that off, Dallas, as a team shot a depressing 39 percent from the field. Indiana, on the other hand. did not have that problem, hitting 48 percent of their shots. Paul George had 24 points (10 of 17), 8 boards and 6 assists.